Speaking to a sold out 2015 ADDP Annual Conference on Friday, March 27, 2015, internationally known 2014 Sochi Paralympian Silver Ski Champion Tatyana McFadden, was warmly received by over 835 members at the Annual Conference in Worcester, Ma. 

To see pictures of the conference, click here.

Tatyana shared her story of being born with spina bifada, placed after birth in a Russian orphanage where she shared a crib with six other infants, learned to walk on her hands and then was eventually adopted by the U.S. Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities; and brought to the United States where she was given the opportunity to thrive within a loving and welcoming family that believed in her potential. 

Her mom, Deborah McFadden, who served in President George H.W. Bush's Administration as the president's chief advisor on disability issues, also spoke sharing with the attendees her family's legal battle in Maryland and nationwide to establish the right for school kids with disabilities to have access to sports and physical education.  Deborah also discussed her crucial involvement in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act as a member of President Bush's Administration.

Both McFaddens thanked ADDP Members for being part of the disability civil rights movement and believing in the worth, dignity and potential of each of the people served by their individual member organizations.

Tatyana told the gathering that she was looking forward to returning to Boston for the 2015 Boston Marathon where she will again compete as a wheelchair athlete.  In 2014. she made world history coming  in first place in the Boston, New York, and Chicago Marathons.